Miles Davis named next president of Linfield College
Updated 12:02 PM; Posted 12:00 PM
By Andrew Theen , Oregonian
Miles Davis didn't envision a career in academia and once in
the higher education world, he didn't plot a path to the president's office.
On Wednesday, the 58-year-old was named the next president
of Linfield College.
"From the moment I engaged with Linfield and the
community, it has been a growing love affair," Davis said in a statement.
"From the Board of Trustees to the faculty, staff, coaches and
administrators, Linfield College is an impressive group of people. It is
Linfield's students, though, who really stole my heart with their inquisitive
and thoughtful questions."
Davis, the dean of Shenandoah University's business school, said
he's excited to take on a new challenge in McMinnville -- another small town
that is home to a private university not unlike Winchester, Virginia, where he
currently works. Davis succeeds Tom Hellie, Linfield's president for the past
12 years, who is retiring at the end of the school year.
In a statement, Linfield's board chair, David Baca credited
Hellie for "a remarkable job" leading the school of roughly 2,200
students and putting it in a good place. "However, all of higher education
faces a rapidly changing environment," said Baca, a partner at the law
firm Davis Wright Tremaine.
"That environment is going to require us to
adapt, and Dr. Davis has shown that he can lead the kind of change we will need
to continue to succeed."
Davis will be the 20th president in Linfield's 160-year
history and the first African-American to lead the college. He'll take over the private
school in the heart of the Willamette Valley's wine country in July.
"I truly do see education as transformative,"
Davis told The Oregonian/OregonLive. "It's much more than vocational or
philosophical. It offers an opportunity for folks to change their lives."
Davis, born in Philadelphia, was intentionally named after
the famed jazz trumpeter. His father was a huge fan of Davis, John Coltrane and
Thelonious Monk. "Music was part of me growing up," he said.
So were newspapers. His father, who never graduated from
high school, always emphasized being an informed citizen. The family listened
to a lot of radio, and for the past 12 years, Davis hosted a monthly radio show
in Winchester to discuss business and civic issues.
Davis served in the Navy and worked on P-3 reconnaissance
planes, chasing Soviet submarines from the sky.
He retired from active duty in 1989 and went into a career
in business consulting with EDS Corp.
Davis received his doctorate in human and organizational
sciences from George Washington University. He previously studied
communications at Duquesne University and received a master's degree in human
resource development from Bowie State University, according to a press release.
In 2001, Davis moved into academia, which he originally had
hoped would offer a slower pace than his business career.
The self-described soccer dad said he wanted to be closer to
home and travel less.
Instead, Davis chaired the business school's management
science department, then founded the Institute for Entrepreneurship at the
school. He's been the dean of the business school since 2012.
Davis, who speaks Spanish, credited Shenandoah's president,
Tracy Fitzsimmons, for encouraging his ascent to leadership positions at the
school.
He said Linfield is "on solid footing," and he
doesn't envision major changes at the college.
But he does see a significant opportunity in Oregon overall,
citing the state's continued population growth.
More people means more businesses, and more opportunities to
supply educated employees for the workforce. "Those types of things are
what makes coming to Linfield exciting," he said.
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